Kennedy et moi

French cinema has always followed a healthy yet strong trend of making films which feature the names of some of American cinema's greatest actors. Some films which have followed this trend are: Travolta Et Moi directed by Patricia Mazuy and Adieu Gary directed by Nassim Amaouche. These films have paid rich tributes to John Travolta and Gary Cooper. The film "Kennedy Et Moi" directed by Sam Karmann also follows the same trend albeit with a difference as his film's title includes the name of one of America's most legendary families-Kennedy Family.Kennedy Et Moi is about a failed writer whose life changes forever when John.F.Kennedy makes an entry to his life. In a country famous for its morbid obsession with America,the making of Kennedy Et Moi is not at all a surprise. However,this film has its own share of problems.It suffers enormously from the inadequacy of the script as nobody knows how Kennedy became an obsession for a failed writer.Apart from this minor yet important detail,it is felt that the depiction of mid life crisis in this film is not at all remarkable.One cannot do justice to mid life crisis merely by using force against all and sundry.In 1992,Sam Karmann directed a remarkable short film called "Omnibus".However,the talent which he displayed in that film is grossly missing in "Kennedy Et Moi" despite the benign presence of two great French actors-Nicole Garcia and Jean Pierre Bacri.

Bacri's character is sick and tired of his spouse,his work (as a writer running out of ideas),his offspring,his doctor,his dentist,his friends,the whole world.Like Mickael Douglas in "falling down" ,he goes off the rails:but whereas Schumacher's hero opts for violence,Bacri's character chooses a provocative way.He 's sparing of gestures ,but his sullen looks are priceless.

He seems to live in another world,which he has built from start to finish from his shrink's watch which might have belonged to Kennedy (hence the title).The scene on the boat -which features a very funny cameo by Jean-Claude Brialy- climaxes the movie ,with its despise of the family values (shall I bring back the wreath?).A short movie (about 80 minutes) but delightfully unpolitically correct.

Jean-Pierre Bacri made weary existential fatigue fairly funny in such films as "Un Air de Famille" (1996) and "On Connait la Chanson" (1997). Here, he plays an affluent writer going through a sullen mid-life crisis - and you couldn't care less. Sam Karmann, the writer-director, really hasn't provided much reason for Bacri's dour mood except for a fling his wife is having with a doctor (which, given the sourness of her husband seems perfectly justified). The film lacks the crisp, tart writing of "Famille" and settles instead for interminable close-ups of Bacri's bored and depressed face.

When his character develops an tepid interest in the Kennedy Assassination as a way to break out of his funk (he doesn't intend to study it or write a book or interview Oliver Stone or anything, he just sits around watching the Dallas footage), the film becomes somewhat offensive. Using other people's tragedies as a way to find solace in life may be inevitable but neither Karmann nor Bacri have dramatized this man's spiritual crises well enough to understand why he would choose l'affaire Kennedy for emotional uplift. Kennedy's presence, like almost every one else in "Kennedy et Moi", seems arbitrary - not related to this uninteresting man's bad, bad mood.

"Kennedy et Moi" says no more than that even successful French writers get the blues (big surprise). Watching a middle-aged French actor mope around without a decent script, even for 1h 26m, is a chore no one deserves - not even the French liked this movie.

Even if this movie is less known and less successful than "Un air de famille" or "Cuisine et Dépendances", the awesome plays turned to movies by the duo Jaoui/Bacri, this Sam Kalman film describes both some unbearable way of living of middle-class, preppie type people, and also a most delicate subject: some of your children may be stupid and you may hate them. Even if it sometimes takes the easy way by criticizing (properly) dentists and doctors, I think it's even less conventional than the successful plays of the same author, the dialogues are not crafted to kill, characters are really touching and are not hidden behind their lines, and this Kennedy story is just another delirium that adds to the general funny atmosphere.